Reform slates Tory Walsall Council for not raising council tax
The chair of Walsall and Bloxwich's Reform UK branch has criticised the leader of Walsall Council over the decision not to increase council tax in the 2026/27 budget.
Elaine Williams accused the council of sabotaging the authority’s finances, leaving a future "Reform-led council to clean up the mess".
The comments were made at a full council meeting on Monday (November 3).
Ms Williams asked the leader of the Tory-led council, Councillor Mike Bird, if he regrets not increasing council tax by the maximum amount allowed.
Councillor Bird said he had "no regrets, and neither do the residents of Walsall".
Ms Williams then accused the administration of risking the council’s finances by using earmarked reserves to offset the overspend in the revenue budget.
She said: “The council has proposed 79 cost-saving measures, once again reducing services to residents of Walsall to achieve £28.244 million in savings for its 2026/27 budget.
“Will Councillor Bird be increasing council tax by the maximum amount for the next financial year, or will they not do this because every Conservative councillor is up for election in 2026, which would then leave a future Reform-led council to clean up the financial mess?”
Councillor Bird responded: “I do admire your sense of humour if nothing else.
“If you understand what earmarked reserves were, in actual fact you would understand that your question is total rubbish.
“Reserves are there for emergencies, earmarked reserves are there for protected projects that might or might not go ahead and therefore they can be reprofiled into the future.
“A bit of a lesson for you, if ever, God forbid, you were elected to do the finances of this council.
“If you look around the country and see the debacle that the Reform councils have had then quite honestly you will see why the Reform movement is falling over.
“Over the years of having had the portfolio for finance, at no time, ever, have we not set a balanced budget.
“That’s not just down to me and the administration we have, it’s down to the exceptional finance team that we have.
“If you want to criticise us for not increasing the council tax, well that’s your party’s position, but it’s not mine.”
